<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="https://community.appian.com/cfs-file/__key/system/syndication/rss.xsl" media="screen"?><rss version="2.0" xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"><channel><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization</link><description /><dc:language>en-US</dc:language><generator>Telligent Community 12</generator><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization</link><pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2024 15:38:35 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>Appian Max Team</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Current Revision posted to Article by Appian Max Team on 4/26/2024 3:38:35 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="max-height:669px;max-width:1189px;" alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/2378x1338/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/2023_5F00_Developer_5F00_Photoshoot_2D00_200.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/83</link><pubDate>Thu, 18 Apr 2024 15:54:40 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>Appian Max Team</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 83 posted to Article by Appian Max Team on 4/18/2024 3:54:40 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="max-height:669px;max-width:1189px;" alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/2378x1338/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/2023_5F00_Developer_5F00_Photoshoot_2D00_200.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/82</link><pubDate>Tue, 20 Feb 2024 15:21:45 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 82 posted to Article by joel.larin on 2/20/2024 3:21:45 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img style="max-height:669px;max-width:1189px;" alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/2378x1338/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/2023_5F00_Developer_5F00_Photoshoot_2D00_200.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/81</link><pubDate>Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:14:52 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 81 posted to Article by joel.larin on 2/14/2024 8:14:52 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/80</link><pubDate>Wed, 14 Feb 2024 20:14:30 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 80 posted to Article by joel.larin on 2/14/2024 8:14:30 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/79</link><pubDate>Wed, 14 Feb 2024 19:10:33 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 79 posted to Article by joel.larin on 2/14/2024 7:10:33 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/78</link><pubDate>Fri, 02 Jun 2023 15:12:37 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 78 posted to Article by joel.larin on 6/2/2023 3:12:37 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/77</link><pubDate>Fri, 02 Jun 2023 15:10:59 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 77 posted to Article by joel.larin on 6/2/2023 3:10:59 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin-bottom:3rem;margin-top:3rem;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:100%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="font-size:145%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span style="display:inline-block;font-size:115%;margin-top:0.8rem;"&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/76</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 20:36:30 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 76 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 8:36:30 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/75</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 20:35:14 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 75 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 8:35:14 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Model Good Knowledge Sharing Behavior&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/74</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:45:30 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 74 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 7:45:30 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: Appian Teams, Training, People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/73</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:24:18 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 73 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 7:24:18 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/72</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 19:23:57 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 72 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 7:23:57 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Technology&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;gt;Practices&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/71</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:38:44 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 71 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:38:44 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Technology&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/70</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:31:47 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 70 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:31:47 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/span&gt; or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/69</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:31:13 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 69 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:31:13 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;quot;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;, the &lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/68</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:27:16 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 68 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:27:16 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;According to &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;the Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;found that the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;ldquo;brain drain&amp;quot;.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/67</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:24:16 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 67 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:24:16 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A study from t&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;he&amp;nbsp;Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;found that the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;ldquo;brain drain.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/66</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:24:01 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 66 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:24:01 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A study from&amp;nbsp;&lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;The&amp;nbsp;Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;found that the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;ldquo;brain drain.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/65</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:21:33 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 65 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:21:33 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;study from the&amp;nbsp;Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;found that the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;ldquo;brain drain.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
</description></item><item><title>Share Knowledge Across Your Organization</title><link>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization/revision/64</link><pubDate>Tue, 07 Mar 2023 18:20:48 GMT</pubDate><guid isPermaLink="false">d3a83456-d57b-489c-a84c-4e8267bb592a:50f84ec6-9afa-4e4a-9af5-15652f70706e</guid><dc:creator>joel.larin</dc:creator><comments>https://community.appian.com/success/w/article/3101/share-knowledge-across-your-organization#comments</comments><description>Revision 64 posted to Article by joel.larin on 3/7/2023 6:20:48 PM&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;p style="text-align:center;"&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/800x601/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/knowledge_5F00_sharing.png" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Why Knowledge Sharing Matters&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;As the use of Appian becomes more widespread across different groups, teams and divisions of your organization, the impact of siloed or lost knowledge can lead to project delays, lost opportunities for reuse or even having teams &amp;lsquo;reinvent the wheel&amp;rsquo;. When your Appian program expands, so too should your knowledge sharing efforts. Even simple search tools and sharing practices can help combat the $31.5B that the &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lynk.global/insights/what-is-knowledge-management-and-why-is-it-crucial-to-success"&gt;International Data Corporation (IDC)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt; estimates that Fortune 500 companies lose roughly a year due to poor or non-existent knowledge sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;But, it&amp;rsquo;s not just about sharing knowledge. Getting the most out of your efforts requires tailoring your investments to maximize your benefits. This guide will review best practices for knowledge sharing and scaling knowledge sharing practices. Before going further, let&amp;rsquo;s start with two important definitions:&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Knowledge Sharing&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The act of exchanging information or understanding between individuals, teams, departments, or organizations. It can occur asynchronously or synchronously depending on the type of knowledge being shared and via different mediums. In the context of a growing Appian practice, commonly used sharing mechanisms include dedicated chat rooms and spaces, folder drives with reusable resources, &amp;lsquo;lunch &amp;amp; learns,&amp;rsquo; or other forms of dedicated meeting.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Knowledge&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Takes a variety of forms such as insights gained from experience or explicit practices such as processes, how-to&amp;rsquo;s, and other documentation. Ultimately, it&amp;rsquo;s any sort of information that is useful for driving success and worth transferring from one group to another. For Appian, this frequently includes successful use cases, development or project management best practices, common pitfalls, and lessons learned.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Barriers and Benefits&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;The cost of poor knowledge sharing is easily overlooked but adds up when employees waste time searching for information or reinvent the wheel. If your organization is just getting started, expect barriers at the individual, cultural and technical levels.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A &lt;span style="text-decoration:underline;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://www.panopto.com/about/news/inefficient-knowledge-sharing-costs-large-businesses-47-million-per-year/"&gt;study from the&amp;nbsp;Panopto Workplace Knowledge and Productivity Report&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;found that the average worker wastes 5.3 hours every week either waiting on vital information from a colleague or recreating existing institutional knowledge. As such, organizations must also incentivize good knowledge sharing behavior and make it easy and rewarding for employees by investing in training, technology, and recognition.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Benefits from effective knowledge sharing include improved collaboration, productivity, and innovation. Additionally, effective knowledge sharing practices help build a positive corporate culture, improve employee morale and mitigate costs of lost knowledge and &amp;ldquo;brain drain.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Tailor Your Approach&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Investments in knowledge sharing should be appropriately tailored to the scale of your Appian program, balancing costs versus potential benefits. The most successful organizations think of knowledge sharing as a journey and realize they don&amp;rsquo;t need to invest in &amp;lsquo;advanced&amp;rsquo; knowledge sharing practices right from the start. However, the greater the scale of Appian activities, the more benefits there are in formalizing knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Based on a &lt;a href="https://www.tsia.com/resources/tsia-knowledge-management-maturity-model"&gt;knowledge sharing maturity framework by TSIA&lt;/a&gt;, the &lt;a href="#knowledge-table"&gt;table&lt;/a&gt; below offers a simplified overview of activities and Appian-relevant stepping stones to help assess and mature your knowledge sharing practices.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 1: Documentation&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;At this stage, Appian activities are spread across a few teams supporting multiple applications. Knowledge sharing practices focus on documentation, encouraging informal collaboration across teams and sponsoring a variety of ad-hoc activities dedicated to information and practice sharing.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Once we had a few Appian teams up and running, it was surprising how quickly teams started missing opportunities to enable each other. But with just a bit of structure--things like a common repository for project documentation and a cross-team Slack channel--we&amp;rsquo;ve been able to improve collaboration across teams with minimal investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;AVP of Automation, North America Financial Services Company&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 2: Standardization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian&amp;rsquo;s footprint is across multiple teams managing multiple applications, at least some of which are business-impacting if they suffer an outage. At this level, there is increased emphasis on standardizing &amp;amp; routinizing knowledge sharing practices with formal incentives to encourage sharing behavior.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&amp;quot;As we started to build our Appian program across multiple teams, we quickly realized that we needed more than just ad-hoc team check-ins&amp;quot;, says a Development Team Lead at a European Financial Services Company. &amp;quot;We established a regular cadence of meetings to help normalize cross-team [knowledge] sharing. Now, we&amp;rsquo;re working on a cross-team mentorship program to build on our early successes.&amp;quot;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Level 3: Systemization&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian applications and Appian-enabled initiatives aren&amp;#39;t only widespread but often have a high degree of process or technical interdependency. At this level, organizations invest in establishing a formal process and dedicated resources&amp;mdash;such as a &lt;a href="/success/w/guide/2962/program-accountability#appian_center_of_excellence"&gt;Center of Excellence (CoE&lt;/a&gt;) or guilds&amp;mdash;to maximize coordination and knowledge sharing. These systems help identify, document and disseminate best practices. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Knowledge Sharing Characteristics&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;table id="knowledge-table"&gt;
&lt;tbody&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Level&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Technology&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Incentives &amp;amp; Sponsorship&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;th&gt;
&lt;h4&gt;Practices&lt;/h4&gt;
&lt;/th&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Level 1&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Single department, multiple applications&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;️Dedicated chat room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Uncurated Appian team drive for document sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Project retrospective&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Email group(s)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Senior management encourages open communication and collaboration&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Nominal recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Informal incentives (eg. town hall shout-outs, peer-to-peer recognition, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on ad-hoc basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture knowledge learned through retrospectives&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Ad-hoc meetings dedicated to knowledge sharing&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save, and update materials ad-hoc&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 2&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;️️
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian best-practices &amp;lsquo;Wiki&amp;rsquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Team Templates (eg. Meeting Checklist, Communication Guide, New Project Template)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Curated Appian team drive&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Formal incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Official recognition for knowledge sharing champions&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Encouraged, sponsored and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected in job description&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on quarterly or monthly basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Partially dedicated knowledge steward&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 1 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated knowledge sharing sessions across organization (lunch &amp;amp; learns, monthly meeting, etc.)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource(s) responsible for capturing, organizing, updating and disseminating information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Capture, save and update materials on semi-regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Level 3&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Multiple departments, multiple applications with interdependencies &lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Content is analyzed and updated/created new based on gaps&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Tools and surveys&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
️&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Dedicated&amp;nbsp; knowledge owner or captain&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Feedback on knowledge sharing&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Increased incentives and rewards: example 1, example 2&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Time allotted to employees on weekly basis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Expected and practiced among team and management&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;td&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Level 2 Items&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Resource gap analysis&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Center of Excellence with dedicated staff&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Integrated Appian roadmap&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Appian Communities of practice or guilds&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li style="font-weight:400;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Matured capture, save, and updating materials on regular basis&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/td&gt;
&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/tbody&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge flows best when people trust each other. In order to maintain an environment where employees share ideas freely and collaborate without holding back, they need to understand that making mistakes is normal. Create a safe space for sharing and encourage employees to share lessons learned from past projects, including failures. For example, automation team leaders at a North American financial services firm hold regular sharing sessions (called &amp;lsquo;bots n&amp;rsquo; bagels&amp;rsquo;) for teams working with RPA to share successes, failures, lessons learned and plans for future projects.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Look for teams that are sharing knowledge and find out how their processes benefit both the team and the organization as a whole. Celebrate these examples and further incent the practice with more formal rewards based on different activities to reinforce the organization&amp;rsquo;s stance that knowledge sharing is a worthwhile investment of company time. &lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;Build a Culture of Trust and Knowledge Sharing&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;There is no blueprint for creating a knowledge-sharing organization, but experience shows that it won&amp;#39;t happen without a supportive environment to guide the behavior. Take a top-down approach and task managers to model knowledge sharing behaviors and best practices. This won&amp;#39;t only signal the strategic importance of knowledge sharing to the organization but teams will also take their cues from how managers encourage, conduct, and reward knowledge sharing efforts.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Case in Point&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;A Director at a global pharmaceuticals company provides an example of managers practicing what they preach. Their efforts include things such as: regular letters to staff, participation in town hall meetings, organizing presentations, and actively participating in knowledge-sharing activities. These are a few examples that can help demonstrate leadership&amp;rsquo;s investment in knowledge sharing. Modeling these behaviors can set the tone for an environment where sharing is normalized, even in cases where the lessons learned result from &amp;lsquo;failed&amp;rsquo; or sub-optimal experiences.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="text-align:center;"&gt;
&lt;div style="line-height:200%;margin:0 auto;text-align:justify;width:70%;"&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;img alt=" " src="/resized-image/__size/75x100/__key/communityserver-wikis-components-files/00-00-00-00-45/Quote-Marks_5F00_orange_2D00_01.png" /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:140%;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Task your knowledge stewards with enabling knowledge sharing activities, communicating program announcements, encouraging others to share or even simply probing community chats to keep knowledge flowing. Committing leaders to the effort will empower knowledge sharing change agents, help ensure quality and further demonstrate commitment from leadership to the investment.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Product Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals Company &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style="margin:10px 21% 10px 21%;"&gt;
&lt;p style="font-size:118%;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-weight:400;"&gt;Knowledge sharing can be a powerful weapon, and when implemented the right way, it can effectively transform a business. Built with the right tools and philosophy, knowledge sharing can help optimize key areas, maximize performance and simplify training. These benefits quickly add up and drive organizations to enhance both the opportunities and capabilities of their workforce.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style="clear:both;"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;

&lt;div style="font-size: 90%;"&gt;Tags: People&lt;/div&gt;
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